Vincenzo Izzo’s fruitless hunt for a decent cup of coffee sent him back to the source to begin importing espresso machines from Europe in 1974. It wasn’t long before friends, family and friends of family began flocking to his newly-minted social club, not just for the coffee, but for the camaraderie. Fifty years on, his son, Peter and daughter-in-law Kellie are running the massively successful Cappuccino King ensuring all Calgarians have access to the world’s best cappuccino.

“What my dad started was because he was dedicated to the community,” says Peter in his Edmonton Tr. showroom surrounded by beautiful, gleaming espresso machines. “And we continue that tradition today. We support local businesses and local charities and we try to bring people together over great coffee.”

While Vinnie Izzo was bringing a bit of Italy to Calgary, Frank Spinelli was doing the same in Edmonton with the Italian Centre Shop, which in 2015 opened its first Calgary location on Acadia Dr., under daughter Teresa Spinelli’s leadership. Managed by longtime employee Gino Marghella, the location has become a home and centre of inspiration for all things Italian in Calgary’s south end.

“We exist to connect people through food and cultural experiences,” says Marghella as he sets up the patio chairs outside the café under a soft summer sun. Just a few minutes of watching him interact with staff and customers like a favourite zio (uncle), shows this approach in action. Same goes for his staff, who are empowered to treat every customer as though they are one of the family.

Like the Italian Centre Shop and Cappuccino King, many businesses that began as small, family stores have become international concerns with their own manufacturing, importing and exporting businesses. Take The Italian Store, for instance. Alberto and Cristina Iamartino opened Great West Italian Importers in 1956. Over the next six decades, the family grew the business…and grew it some more. Today, the Iamartino family (including the third generation) runs the company, which now has two divisions: the Italian Store retail outlet (including a café and pizzeria), and Scarpone’s Quality Italian Foods: the largest wholesale distributor of Italian and Mediterranean products in Western Canada.

With 65 years in the industry, they work with suppliers on packaging and innovation and have access to a wide range of the best products, directly from Italy which they say are made of the highest quality ingredients at reasonable prices.

It appears that the Italian way of making you feel like family…even if it’s your first time through the door is the secret sauce that has kept these businesses in operation over decades and generations. It’s a sentiment so ingrained in the Italian way, the folks over at the Calgary Italian Bakery named their bread for it.

Founded in 1962 by Luigi and Myrl Bontorin, the Calgary Italian Bakery began like many of its contemporaries: as an effort to bring something better to this little city on the prairies. They say their founders believed “Calgarians deserved better bread made with love and ingredients you could pronounce.” Today the company is run by sons David and Louis, who launched their La Famiglia line of bread to honour Luigi and Myrl and to bring Calgarians into the family fold. And it’s a big family! The Calgary Italian Bakery has become a leading supplier of bread products in Western Canada with its 40,000-sq.-ft. facility working 24 hours a day to feed the family.

Joe Di Gaeta of the family-owned, Italian Super Market, says Calgarians are drawn not just to the food, but to the culture his dad started in 1963, and the family has been offering ever since.

“Italian culture has a certain romance about it. Food is central to recreating and emulating that passion,” says Di Gaeta. The excited chatter of customers enjoying the smells and warmth emanating from the hand-crafted pizza oven over his shoulder illustrates his point.

While it wasn’t a family business that inspired Tony and Tom Spoletini and Mike Palumbo (the folks behind Spolumbo’s Fine Foods & Deli) family recipes did inspire the original mild Italian sausage that took the city by storm when they launched in 1991. Combining a little of this from the Spoletini recipe with a little of that from the Palumbo vaults and a sprinkle of Tudda magic touch (see the illustration on the next page for how the Tuddas (Stromboli Inn, Villa Firenze) and the Caracciolos (Mercato, Sorella) fit in!) that became Spolumbos’ signature sausage. Now supplying Western Canada and beyond with a wide variety of flavours, Tony Spoletini says “famiglia” goes beyond Spolumbos’ front doors and into the community. And it’s a love that flows both ways.

“In our culture, the Italian culture, our door is always open. That’s what we wanted in our business, an extension of home,” he says. “Alberta is a generous province. Growing up and playing sports in Calgary, the parents, the local businesses, the coaches, were all so supportive with their time and providing jerseys, fees, banquets. Giving back to the community, especially kids’ sports and charities… has always been important to us.”

There’s an Italian expression that says “la cucina è il cuore della casa:” the kitchen is the heart of the home. These families, their food and their legacies are at the heart of the city we call home, having played an integral role in our history, contributing to our vibrant culinary present and investing in a delicious future.

Grazie di tutto!